Breathe!

I spent the entirety of last week going through training to be a neglect and abuse investigator. Not exactly a "light" way to spend a week.  There were many stories of vulnerable people having bad things happen to them.  Sexual physical and psychological abuse, and neglect.  It breaks your heart.  I was reminded that all too often ugly things happen to innocent and good people.  I think about the people I counsel who have often experienced terrible abuse as children.  Of the wonderful man in my church who has cancer.  Of the young man with the traumatic brain injury from a car wreck.

They are out there, these victims.  And frankly it's a little hard to take.  I find myself angry, frustrated, confused, and often downright disappointed by God.  After all, I think I know how God ought to act.  And allowing bad things to happen to innocents is not on my list of acceptable behavior.

I decided to Google "bad things and good people."  There were some interesting results.  I found a group of sites that said basically the idea of bad things happening to good people is not even theologically sound. Why?  Because there are no good people.  "All have sinned" they point out "and fall short of the glory of God."  Sorry, that answer doesn't work for me.

Others suggest that if we could just understand the big picture, the "why", the causal purpose of events then we would be fine.  The problem is that all too often we never figure out the "why", ever.  Think about Job who really never got an answer to the causal question.  I know for sure there are times I haven't gotten an answer.  And I intend to ask about those events if I ever get the chance.

 

Chances are that often we will never understand some things.  So if we begin our efforts to deal with our stuggles by trying to answer the question of "why" we will never get beyond the question.  And getting stuck on the question we will get stuck in our disappointment, our confusion and despair.  And thus we will become frozen. 

In the upper room the disciples were really confused.  They had seen betrayal, had talked about denial, and had heard rumors of death.  In the midst of all that did Jesus offer them another explanation of the ways of God?  A theological dissertation on the implications of the cross?  An apologetic?  A reminder that there are "no good people?"

No, Jesus said "trust in God, trust also in me."  Trust.  Sometimes that is not easy to do.  For in our moments of disappointment, in those moments when bad things happen to innocents, trusting God is not an easy thing.  C.S. Lewis after the death of his wife described the struggle this way.  "My fear is not that I will cease to believe in God, but that I will believe such terrible things about God."  

 

But God still says..."Look at me, and trust." "Remember who I am, what I am like, what I have done, what I have promised.  Look at me, and keep moving.  And you and I will go through it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, together.

Anne Lamott, in the book "Plan B, Other thoughts about Faith" talks about a time when she was terribly confused and in despair.  She cried out to a friend, "I want to know what to do!"  He answered.  "Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe... We breathe, we eat, we remember that God is present whenever people suffer.  God is here with us when we are miserable."  Anne didn't like that answer.  "But look at the suffering" she responded.  "It seems like people are abandoned by God.  How do we not lose our minds?"  The friend replied.  "YOU take care of the suffering."  I like that answer.  In short it was the same as that of Jesus.  Trust in God, and keep living, and loving, and caring, and helping.  Keep going with God.

Simple, if not easy.  But I like thinking about it that way. Left foot, right foot, left foot, breath.  Go with God and see what happens, one step at a time.  Also known as trust.